On the road to equality — and counting
Like so many, I yearn for the day when gender-balanced cabinets are no longer noteworthy, when government cabinets are a better, truer reflection of the populations they serve; when these decisions are routine rather than the exception.
Unfortunately, we must still count.
In recent days, the president of France made headlines around the world when he appointed a cabinet with equal numbers of women and men. This matters because such decisions are still rare in the political world and, of course, in stark contrast to what is happening in the United States.
We count because the world of politics is still fraught with sexism — pervasive, ingrained sexism. It is a world that still does not appreciate the different experiences, priorities and skills that women bring to the table.
When a group of mostly white men legislate away women’s reproductive choices as is happening in the U.S., we must still count the many factors contributing to women’s inequality. We must count and we must challenge with every breath we take.
When in Canada, one woman is murdered on average every six days by her spouse or ex-partner, we must count. When over 1,200 indigenous women and girls are murdered or missing, we must count and we must challenge the racism and sexism that are fundamental to this travesty.
When global corporation Google is charged by the U.S. Department of Labour with a failure to pay women according to equal pay laws, we count the wage gap. We count the millions and millions of dollars owed to women and we challenge our own governments to force employers to rectify their sexist pay discrimination.
We push back every time a woman is appointed to a board or cabinet position or takes on a leadership position and her credentials are questioned because of her gender.
We should consider the message this sends young women and girls. And young men.
Just because in some spaces and places decisions are being made to correct longstanding sexism does not mean this advancement of women is solely because of their gender.
It is because we must correct those injustices and because simply there are tons and tons of smart, savvy, super-competent women with much to offer.
Newsflash: we can have both — gender parity and qualified, smart women. These are not mutually exclusive. It is not an either/or proposition.
An article for the London School of Economics Business Review by four economists — Tim Besley, Olle Folke, Torsten Persson and Johanna Rickne — noted that gender quotas in the Swedish political system found that it is mediocre men who feel threatened by systems to improve the number of women participating in politics.
“Our main finding is that gender quotas increase the competence of the political class in general, and among men in particular. Moreover, quotas are indeed bad news for mediocre male leaders who tend to be forced out,” they reported.
The issue of gender and politics was a hot one in the early days of the ongoing Nova Scotia election.
The governing Liberals have the fewest women running for office and the premier, Stephen Mcneil, was forced to defend the fact that only 12 of 51 or 23.5 per cent of his candidates were women. The other two main political parties have higher percentages of women running for office.
Mcneil replied that many of the women running for the other parties had little chance of winning and were, for all intents and purposes, sacrificial lambs.
At no time did he note that many men were running in ridings they couldn’t win.
He suggested later that his remarks could have been more eloquently delivered. They certainly could have been less insulting, and a whole lot less sexist and patronizing.
The fact remains, women are still counting. We count the number of women candidates because women are consistently underrepresented in politics. We count the pay gap because women still do not have economic equality. We count the number of women murdered because until the violence stops, full equality for women will remain an unrealized dream.
So until equality is achieved, we count and we challenge with every breath we take.
“We count the number of women candidates because women are consistently underrepresented in politics. We count the pay gap because women still do not have economic equality.”